Posted on 08/19/2014 11:12:25 AM PDT by Kaslin
America is on trial," said Rev. Al Sharpton from the pulpit of Greater St Mark's Family Church in Ferguson, Missouri.
At issue, the shooting death of Michael Brown, Saturday a week ago, on the main street of that city of 22,000, a neighbor community to Jennings, where this writer lived in the mid-1960s.
Brown, an 18-year-old African-American, was shot multiple times by Darren Wilson, a 28-year-old white police officer with an unblemished record in six years on the force in Jennings and Ferguson.
From his patrol car, Wilson ordered Brown out of the street where he was walking and blocking traffic. A fight followed. Wilson appears to have been punched in the face. One police report says that there was a struggle for the officer's gun.
According to Brown's companion, however, after he was first shot, he threw up his hands and yelled, "Don't shoot. I surrender." Then Wilson gunned him down.
According to one of three autopsies, Brown was shot six times, once in the top of the head, which may suggest he was charging the officer when gunned down. A second St. Louis County autopsy found marijuana in Brown's body.
What we are witnessing in Ferguson today, and nationally, is not only a collision of reported facts, but also a clash of visions about America.
In Sharpton's vision, America is a country where white racist cops harass, assault and gun down young black males, and Brown's execution is the latest outrage. Many media echo his indictment and accent the facts that support this preconceived narrative.
Disrupting this portrait and particularly outrageous to Sharpton was the release by the Ferguson police chief of a videotape of Brown stealing a $44 box of cigars, 15 minutes before he was shot dead, and manhandling and menacing the store clerk trying to stop him.
Brown was 6'4" and 292 pounds.
Sharpton contends that officer Wilson did not know of the "shoplifting" that was irrelevant to the shooting, and that release of the tape was a moral atrocity to smear the character of the dead teenager.
But while that tape may be unrelated to the shooting, it does testify to the mindset of Michael Brown that morning and to his respect for the rule of law. Ought we not know that?
Then there is the rival vision of America rooted in a separate reality. It is that in America today, police, like Darren Wilson, are the first responders and last line of defense, willing to risk their lives battling the criminal elements that threaten us and our free society.
Moreover, violent crime in America -- assault, murder, robbery, rape -- emanates disproportionately from the black community, and especially the young male members of that community.
Crime rates, conviction rates, incarceration rates all testify to this truth. If cops are more on guard when encountering black males, is it not because, given the crime statistics, they have more to fear from them?
Do not the weekly news reports from Barack Obama's hometown of Chicago, where black-on-black violence is pandemic, also testify to this?
Decades ago, U.S. newspapers, which used to publish the race of both victims of crime and perpetrators, decided to stop doing so. They felt that this was the kind of news people have no need to know.
These conflicting visions are not exclusive to race. Many liberals share Sharpton's vision, while many black folks move out of home communities to escape the scourge of crime.
Indeed, if Ferguson in the North County is a racist enclave, why did so many African-Americans move there from overwhelmingly black North St. Louis?
And if only three of the 53 cops on the Ferguson force are black, is that due to race discrimination? The chief says he has sought to recruit blacks and asked the Justice Department for help. Is this untrue?
We are told that of six members of the Ferguson city council only one is black, while two-thirds of Ferguson's population is black. Yet, last week, we learned that the black voter turnout in local elections in Ferguson in 2013 was 6 percent.
When St. Louis County, to stop the violence and looting last week, sent cops into Ferguson with armored personnel carriers and assault rifles, they were denounced for militarizing law enforcement.
"Tell them to remove the damn tanks," ordered Eric Holder. The county complied and a kinder, gentler law enforcement ensued.
And the looters and rioters went on a three-night tear over the weekend forcing Gov. Jay Nixon to call out the National Guard.
Nevertheless, the violence in Ferguson is child's play compared to Watts in '65, Newark and Detroit in '67, and 100 U.S. cities including Washington, D.C., after Dr. King's assassination in '68. In those riots, great cities were gutted, dozens were killed, and thousands arrested.
Detroit never recovered. And that is the future that beckons us all if our first demand today is not for peace and order, and then for justice for Brown's family and Darren Wilson, according to the rule of law.
Back after Hurricane Ike, the media asked Gov. Perry about possible looting in Galveston county. The head DPS guy at the press conference spoke up and stated that there was no looting going on in that county.
Galveston county has the highest per capita of conceal carry licenses in all of Texas.
Ferguson will become just another burned out hell hole run by liberal black Democrats.
Sharpton runs to Ferguson, but won’t go anywhere near the south side of Chicago. Or North Philly.
Go figure.
“No. Mexican/American War II, maybe.”
More likely Mexican/ African American CW2.
It will take place in the urban ghetto that votes 90% demonrat.
The Current FReepathon Pays For The Current Quarter's Expenses?
Idiots
Lets for a moment remind ourselves that the Blacks comprise only 10-13% of the population. Out of that 10-13% only a minority live in the “hood”. The rest of the black population is busy going to work everyday delivering the mail, working in banks, or at Coca Cola, IBM etc.
So even in the Hood only a fraction of the folks are rioting. The rest are just watching or huddled in their houses riding it out. I’m guessing the actual number of rioters/looters is a couple hundred people at most.
It ain’t Gaza.
Lets for a moment remind ourselves that the Blacks comprise only 10-13% of the population. Out of that 10-13% only a minority live in the “hood”. The rest of the black population is busy going to work everyday delivering the mail, working in banks, or at Coca Cola, IBM etc.
So even in the Hood only a fraction of the folks are rioting. The rest are just watching or huddled in their houses riding it out. I’m guessing the actual number of rioters/looters is a couple hundred people at most.
It ain’t Gaza.
Let’s start with the incident that precipitated this dustup. Brown was walking down the middle of the street when a cop ordered him to get on the sidewalk.
Why was Brown walking in the middle of the street to begin with? The cop was perfectly justified in telling him to clear the road. But why would anyone walk down the middle of an urban street anyway?
Everyone knows the answer. Michael Brown was a bully and an arrogant prick who was just daring anyone to remark on his idiotic behavior. It’s half the reason black people do the outrageous crap they do: dressing like clowns, chattering like primates at feeding time, defying all conventions of taste and decorum.
This time, an armed policeman took Brown’s dare. And it quickly escalated into much more than either man expected. Brown compounded his bravado by assaulting the cop, then, confronted with a man who would not back down in the face of his bullying, did what bullies do: he ran away. But bluster overcame common sense and he charged the much smaller officer, renewing the attack. And the cop righteously put him down.
The cop could have just driven by when he saw Brown walking in the street. But if we’re a nation of laws and his job is to enforce the law, he would have been derelict in his duty. Was he just supposed to ignore Brown because he was afraid to do his job? Was his demand that Brown get his fat butt out of the middle of the road so egregious that he deserved to be assaulted? Or was Michael Brown just a typical inner-city thug with a chip on his shoulder and more bluff than brains?
Only one of these men broke the law. It shouldn’t be a surprise that he paid the price for it.
And likewise lets for a moment remind ourselves that White guilt runs very deep even among many Conservatives that every chance they get they must regurgitate the political correct sound bytes and platitudes out of fear of being called a racist
Some links to articles I have no interest to post because of the time it takes:
http://www.dcclothesline.com/2014/08/18/police-ferguson-tried-stop-looting/
http://www.dcclothesline.com/2014/08/18/pastor-jesse-lee-ferguson-michael-brown-thug-2/
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/08/breaking-white-house-may-send-obama-to-ferguson/
http://freedomoutpost.com/2014/08/much-anger-ferguson/
http://freedomoutpost.com/2014/08/lessons-ferguson-prepping-civil-unrest-martial-law/
http://www.westernjournalism.com/breaking-new-report-claims-michael-brown-ran-officer-full-speed/
http://freedomoutpost.com/2014/08/tawana-brown-case/
http://www.westernjournalism.com/rev-jesse-jackson-asks-donations-ferguson-protesters-run-town/
http://www.westernjournalism.com/report-autopsy-found-marijuana-mike-browns-system/
bttt
“America is on trial,” said Rev. Al Sharpton from the pulpit of Greater St Mark’s Family Church in Ferguson, Missouri.”
Al certainly gets around...
From a church in MO to a CAIR banquet in VA.
(He’s anything BUT worthy of reverence.)
Some more than I forgot to add:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/cnn-out-towners-oakland-inciting-violence-ferguson_803043.html
http://downtrend.com/71superb/kareem-abdul-jabbar-says-race-war-coming/
http://downtrend.com/donn-marten/state-chaos-rages-ferguson/
http://clashdaily.com/2014/08/straight-talk-michael-brown-criminal-thug/
http://clashdaily.com/2014/08/mayhem-america-2-shot-violence-rocks-ferguson-9th-night/
I copied the links in my notepad and will check them out later
“You put them first, and they put you last – ’cause you’re a chump. A political chump! … Anytime you throw your weight behind a political party that controls two-thirds of the government, and that party can’t keep the promise that it made to you during election time, and you are dumb enough to walk around continuing to identify yourself with that party – you’re not only a chump but you’re a traitor to your race.” Malcom X, 1964
An elderly lady (black) of my acquaintance lived on 14th Street in D.C.
She said that early in the morning after the shooting of MLK, a large sedan pulled around the corner, men jumped out, and threw bricks through store windows up and down the block. They jumped back in the car and it sped away.
Obama will encourage more riots. Holder will send in more Communist race-baiting lawyers. Bombs and fires will be set off. There will be terrorist attacks by the tens of thousands of terrorists Obama has allowed to stream across the border.
The TEA Party, gun owners, and returned vets will be blamed, rounded up, killed.
Most of the population will applaud as Obama declares martial law.
The United States will no longer exist.
Breaking:
COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS
Officer shot, residents taken hostage in Harvey
Updated: Aug 19, 2014 1:52 PM CST
HARVEY, Ill.
A suspected burglar shot a south suburban police officer and is now holding hostages in a standoff with police.
A Harvey police officer was shot while responding to a call of a burglary in progress in the 13700 block of Robey Avenue about 12:48 p.m., according to a spokesman for the city.
“The officer was responding to a 911 call when he saw a subject with a gun, there was an exchange of gunfire, and the officer was shot,” Harvey spokesman Sean Howard said. He would not disclose the officer’s condition, but said he was taken to a hospital.
After the suspect shot the officer, he went back into a nearby home, where he was believed to be holding the residents hostage, Howard said.
Excerpt
http://www.myfoxchicago.com/story/26318275/officer-shot-residents-taken-hostage-in-harvey
I totally agree IronJack. Well said....
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